PURPOSE: This survey was done to describe parenting self-efficacy and beliefs in corporal punishment as they are related to child abuse. Also demographic variables that influence child abuse were investigated.
METHOD: A cross-sectional study was conducted during the second week of April 2002. The 160 participants were parents of students in five elementary schools in the J area of Korea. They replied to a structured questionnaire, and 129 replies were included in the final analysis. The WIN SPSS program was used for the analysis.
RESULT: Parenting self-efficacy, beliefs in corporal punishment and child abuse showed no significant differences according to gender of the children. Child abuse by parents has significantly negative correlation with parenting self-efficacy (r=-.369, p=.000), socioeconomic states of family(r=-.290, p=.001), educational level of mother(r=-.211, p=.027), educational level of father(r=-.342, p=.000), parent's age(r=-.200, p=.028). Stepwise multiple regression showed that parenting self-efficacy and beliefs in corporal punishment significantly influence child abuse in Korean parents.
CONCLUSION: As parenting self-efficacy explained 49.7% of child abuse, it is the most important variable for preventing child abuse. Belief in corporal punishment was the second most important variable in preventing child abuse. These two variables explained 53.3% of variance in child abuse by parents.